Dysregulation of PKCε is involved in several serious diseases such as cancer, type II diabetes and Alzheimer's disease. Therefore, specific activators and inhibitors of PKCε hold promise as future therapeutics, in addition to being useful in research into PKCε regulated pathways. We have previously described llama single chain antibodies (VHHs) that specifically activate (A10, C1 and D1) or inh...

Small, soluble single-domain fragments derived from the unique variable region of dromedary heavy-chain antibodies (VHHs) against enzymes are known to be potent inhibitors. The immunization of dromedaries with the TEM-1 and BcII beta-lactamases has lead to the isolation of such single-domain antibody fragments specifically recognizing and inhibiting those beta-lactamases. Two VHHs were isolated...

Heterologous expression of high amounts of recombinant proteins is a milestone for research and industrial purposes. Single domain antibodies (sdAbs) are heavy-chain only antibody fragments with applications in the biotechnological, medical and industrial fields. The simple nature and small size of sdAbs allows for efficient expression of the soluble molecule in different hosts. However, in som...

OBJECTIVE To construct an immune alpaca phage display library, in order to obtain a single domain anti-BAFF (B cell-activating factor) antibody. METHODS Using phage display technology, we constructed an immune alpaca phage display library, selected anti-BAFF single domain antibodies (sdAbs), cloned three anti-BAFF single-domain antibody genes into expression vector pSJF2, and expressed them e...

Background and Objectives Cholera is a life-threatening diarrhea caused mainly by Gram-negative marine habitant Vibrio cholerae serogroup O1. Cholera vaccination is limited mainly to developed countries, due to the cumbersome and expensive task of vaccine production. In the present work, the aim was to study the immunogenicity of the synthetic mimotopes through two different routes of injection...

Destabilized nanobodies can be used to deliver fluorescent proteins and enzymes to specific targets inside cells.

Gamma delta T cells expressing the Vg9Vδ2 T cell receptor (TCR) are the most predominant gδ-T cell subset in peripheral blood accounting for approximately 1-5 % of all T cells. Vg9Vδ2 T cells recognize phosphoantigens (pAg) such as isopentenyl pyrophosphate (IPP), a naturally occurring pAg that can accumulate in tumor cells, resulting in activation, cytokine release and anti-tumor activity of V...

The virulence factors of Vibrio harveyi, the causative agent of luminous vibriosis, are not completely understood. We investigated the correlations between shrimp mortality, hemolysis, the presence of a hemolysin gene (vhh), and a gene involved in the type III secretion system (the Vibrio calcium response gene vcrD). V harveyi HY01 was isolated from a shrimp that died from vibriosis, and 36 oth...